Page 1 of 2 Next >>In the early 1960s designer Ron Tauranac and then two-time World Champion Jack Brabham joined forces and started the production of single seater and sports racing cars. Without real financial backing or a road car program to support the efforts, Tauranac and Brabham had to keep a very close eye on the expenses. The cars carried Brabham's name and the individual models the two partner's initials. A single car was produced in 1961, but things really got started in 1962 when 11 examples of the BT2 Formula Junior racer were produced. This customer car was followed later in the year by the one-off BT3 Formula 1 racer for Brabham to drive. In the car's second Grand Prix, Brabham drove it to a fourth place and as a result was the driver to ever score world championship points in a car bearing his own name.

Used in the wide variety of single seater championships, the Brabhams that followed the BT2 and BT3 all shared a very similar design. The simple spaceframe chassis proved very effective in the lower formula, but in reality was not going to cut against the more advanced Lotus 25s and more powerful Ferraris. Nevertheless, Dan Gurney managed to drive a Coventry Climax engined BT7 to the team's first Formula 1 victory in the 1964 French Grand Prix. As the 1.5 litre era drew to a close in 1965, Brabham was a well established manufacturer, producing dozens of cars per year. All that was needed now was success in Formula 1 and with a set of completely new rules and subsequently a level playing field, it was an ideal opportunity for Anglo-Australian team.

After running super light weight cars and high revving engines, the new 3-litre regulations proved quite a challenge for chassis and engine manufacturers alike. Both Coventry Climax and BRM attempted to carry over as much as possible from their 1.5-litre engines by designing overly complex 16 cylinder units. Ferrari seemed to have an edge with their vast experience with 3 litre V12 sportscar engines and even Maserati looked like a promising engine supplier with the V12 developed for the 250 F a few years earlier. Continuing their collaboration with Coventry Climax, Brabham started to work on a new car to adopt the proposed flat-16 engine in 1965. When it became clear that the engine would not arrive any time soon, the BT19 was set aside and the search for a new engine started. Page 1 of 2 Next >>